June 29, 2017
Letters, Ohio

Wind turbines are too intrusive

Letter: Wind turbines are too intrusive | The Columbus Dispatch | Jun 28, 2017 | www.dispatch.com

Zoning industrial power plants, known euphemistically as windmills, must be a matter of local decision-making. The merits of which should be fully vetted in a separate bill before the legislature and not stuffed into the budget bill.

Wind turbines today are reaching heights of 800 feet with rotor diameters that exceed the length of a football field. They are intrusive in many ways from their sheer size to noise and moving shadows. Ireland has recently determined a zero tolerance for any shadows cast on a neighboring property.

Closer to home this past winter a judge in Maryland ruled the possible benefits of a wind project did “not justify subjecting the local community to the adverse impacts that will result from the wind project’s construction and operation. Even in “green” LA, rural opposition has led to a ban on wind turbines in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Ohio has its head in the sand. Sand that has been bought by the American Wind Energy Association that reportedly spends $20 million per year promoting wind power. Better use of those funds would be compensating rural property owners for the land the wind developers take when setbacks are measured from homes not property lines.

Julia Johnson

Urbana


URL to article:  https://www.wind-watch.org/news/2017/06/29/wind-turbines-are-too-intrusive/